Cooperage



March 28, 1939. A BAUER 2 2,152,020

COOPERAGE Filed Feb. 28, 1938 IN VENTOR.

ATTORNEYS.

Patented Mar. 28, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFiCE 3 Claims.

This invention relates to cooperage and a method of constructing said cooperage, and incidentally of aging liquors. The conventional whiskey key or barrel is composed of a number of curved staves annularly disposed and closed at the top and bottom by heads. The interior surfaces of these members are charred; and after the liquor has been placed in the keg or barrel, it is put away for aging.

It has been found that at the termination of the aging process there is less whiskey in the keg than was originally placed into it, and this loss is called outage. This outage may vary over a considerable range, and in the trade there is a graduated scale of outage allowance.

It is an object of my invention to reduce the outage considerably, and to do it in a simple and inexpensive manner.

It is another object to reduce this outage without in any way aifecting adversely the bouquet of the liquor.

These and other objects of my invention which will be pointed out hereinafter, or will be apparent to one skilled in the art upon reading these specifications, I accomplish by that certain construction and arrangement of parts of which I shall now describe a preferred embodiment. Reference is now made to the drawing which forms a part hereof, and in which:

Figure 1 is a partial cross sectional view taken along the line l-l of Figure 3, showing one modification of my invention.

Figure 2 is a view similar to Figure 1, showing asecond modification of my invention.

Figure 3 is a partial perspective view of a portion of the upper part of a whiskey barrel.

The conventional whiskey barrel consists of staves indicated generally at H]. These staves have a beveled portion ll which is called the chime, and a recessed portion l2 known as the howel. In the howel portion there is a notch called the croze, indicated in the drawing at I3. The head I 4 provided annularly with a beveled portion l5 terminating in a portion called the bead, indicated at It. The bead, as shown, fits into the croze and closes the two ends of the barrel.

Briefly in the practice of my invention I apply to the region between the howel and the bevel exteriorly of the keg or barrel, a sealing material. The region to which this material is applied is indicated generally at l! in Figure 3. The sealing material may be of various kinds, although I have found that paraffin is an excellent material and has the advantage of being very inexpensive. As shown at I8 in Figure 1, this material may be painted or otherwise sprayed onto the howel and bevel exteriorly of the keg.

I may also use a material such as plastic wood, and with such materials I prefer to fill up the region '11 as indicated at l9 in Figure 2, thereby in eiTect building up the thickness of the head in the region of the bevel.

While an inventor is, of course, not required to understand the theory of his invention, I believe without thereby limiting myself, that the large outage encountered in whiskey aging is due to the thinness of the head in the region of the bevel. For this reason the liquor need only traverse the pores of the wood for a relatively short distance. Therefore, I believe that by either building up the thickness of the head in the region of the bevel, or by closing up the pores in the region of the bevel and howel, the outage is considerably reduced without at the same time preventing the so-called breathing of the liquor.

It is to be understood that various materials may be used for my purpose, and that I have only specified two materials which I believe to be preferable. Furthermore, the material may be applied in a large number of ways and may have a large range of cross sectional contours. It is therefore to be understood that I do not intend to limit myself otherwise than as pointed out in the claims which follow.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. A wooden barrel for containing volatile liq: uids, said barrel comprising a plurality of staves, said staves adjacent their ends having howels and crozes in said howels, and said barrel having a head of generally circular form, said head having an annular bevel terminating in a bead which enters into said crozes, said head exteriorly being exposed to the atmosphere and being of sufiicient thickness to prevent substantial outage and said bead presenting a substantial surface to the contained liquid and a substantial surface to the atmosphere so as to normally permit outage, the outwardly exposed surface of said bevel and howel being covered with a sealing material which operates to prevent outage in this region.-

2. A Wooden barrel for containing volatile liquids, said barrel comprising a plurality of staves, said staves adjacent their ends having howels and crozes in said howels, and said barrel having a head of generally circular form, said head having an annular bevel terminating in a bead which enters into said crozes, said head exteriorly being exposed to the atmosphere and being of sufficient thickness to prevent substantial outage and said bead presenting a substantial surface to the contained liquid and a substantial surface to the atmosphere so as to normally permit outage, the outwardly exposed surface of said bevel being coated with a sealing material which operates to prevent outage at this point, said coating also extending upwardly on the bowel.

3. A wooden barrel for containing volatile liquids, said barrel comprising a plurality of staves, said staves adjacent their ends having howels and crozes in said howels, and said barrel having a head of generally circular form, said head having an annular bevel terminating in a head which enters into said crozes, said head exteriorly being exposed to the atmosphere and being of suflicient thickness to prevent substantial outage and said bead presenting a substantial surface to the contained liquid and a substantial surface to the atmosphere so as to normally permit outage, the region between the outwardly exposed surface of the bevel and the bowel being filled with a sealing material which operates to prevent outage in this region.

JOHN ALBERT BAUER. 

